British singer Jorja Smith has revealed that her collaboration with Wizkid on the track 'Alive' was not originally conceived as a feature; the song already existed as a Wizkid record before she came on board. Smith made the disclosure during an interview with JAM FM Berlin, where she discussed the making of her new album, her relationship with AI in music, and the origins of the track.
How 'Alive' Started as a Wizkid Record
She said 'Alive' is the oldest song on the project, explaining that producer P2J already had the record with Wizkid before she heard it and found her entry point into it. "P2J had that song with Wiz already, and then I heard it," she said, adding that Wizkid's existing verse guided the direction of her own contribution.
She described the track as capturing the feeling of driving towards someone at the start of something new. "It was just reminding me of driving down to meet someone. There's like a driving force in the song, a pull," she said. Smith said the song is ultimately about finding fresh love, and that the music video was shot in Paris to match that energy.
P2J's Long-Standing Partnership with Wizkid
P2J, born Richard Isong, is a Nigerian-British producer whose relationship with Wizkid spans nearly a decade. He produced the majority of Made in Lagos, including global hit 'Essence' featuring Tems, as well as key tracks on More Love, Less Ego and Morayo. The two have become one of the most consistently productive artist-producer pairings in Afrobeats, making it entirely natural that a P2J session would already have Wizkid's fingerprints on it before anyone else entered the room.
Smith on AI-Generated Music
Elsewhere in the interview, Smith addressed the growing issue of AI-generated music being mistaken for her own work, saying even family members had been fooled. "AI is kind of a scary grey area. Where is this going?" she said, adding that her approach has been to work with her team to monitor and respond to fake content as it surfaces.
